“Patience is a virtue” might be one of the few cliched axioms that is nearly universal for parents around the globe along with “Because I said so” and “The designated hitter is an abomination in baseball” – although, on second thought that last one might have just been my parents. Regardless, patience is generally seen as a positive trait in our society to the point that we try to instill it in children as early as possible and reward it with everything from positive reinforcement to marshmallows (even if the experiment was ultimately found to be lacking). So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I and many others highly value patience in baseball hitters. And indeed, it has long been standard advice from baseball coaches to hitters that they should try to “work the count” to see more pitch

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